Jumping Platforms

It has been widely reported for the past few years that the "typical" lender tends to abandon their current LOS platform once every 3 to 5 years and chooses to embark on the implementation of a new LOS. Why?

Is this because their current LOS has disappointed them with faulty or antiquated functionality?

Or, is this because the LOS competition has continually offered quantum leaps forward in business technology to provide lenders with competitive gains?

Could it be, this is because the lenders tend to implement systems based on legacy processes that prevent the realization of ROI and defeat the ability for in-house IT to keep the system up-to-date?

Or did we miss the real reason(s)?

Questions & Answers

Consultants are sometimes criticized for delivering little more than reflections of the information gathered by listening to clients describe their issues. At TPG we understand the value of being good listeners but we also take pride in combining the information learned working with clients with the knowledge and data we've built since 1990 to delivering real options and value-added solutions to our clients.

At TPG we help executives find answers and change the way works gets done to improve results. Nevertheless, at times, before moving to solutions, the best response to certain questions take the form of other questions.

Below are a few examples of questions you may ask from time to time followed by some questions that explore some underlying causes of issues:

Q: Why is so much time wasted on false or mistaken priorities?

• Do your managers understand your strategic objectives?
• Do your managers plan, analyze and execute for results?

Q: How many opportunities are lost because of resistance to changes in thinking and approach to problem solving ?

• Do you know why you win or lose business in the marketplace?
• How are you different from your competitors?
• Do your managers pursue Operational Excellence?

Q: Why do staff levels remain higher than volumes should demand?

• Does your company rely too much on software to drive performance improvements?
• Does your business process strategy leverage all ways to improve efficiency, speed & quality?

Q: How can business overcome hurdles of bureaucracy & tired infrastructure?

• Are your managers equipped with the right skills, discipline, information & tools to lead a leaner and more productive business?

Working with TPG

We provide business leaders with trustworthy & objective analysis, advice and solutions. We know the situations you're facing and can help you find the options to improve performance & beat the competition.

We build rapid analysis and the business case for each stage of a project. This provides you with insight, immediate results & value. We help you increase your leverage on existing investments in people and technology before you risk precious resources pursuing new investments.

We work with you to agree on the value we will deliver to your company. Our fees can be fixed to reflect this value to reduces your risk and enable better control and ROI.

• Identify strategic opportunities for profitability and growth.
• Adopt communication and reporting tools that reduce implementation risk while achieving faster results.
• Build reliable & repeatable processes which satisfy customer expectations & compliance.
• Execute change while keeping morale and productivity high.
• TPG delivers analysis, insight, and results working with you to implement change.

TPG The Performance Group 1-800-869-5628 or mfairbank@tpgltd.com

Gaining Leverage Under Pressure

Exercising leverage in sales & operations ensures success when times are lean.

The concept of leverage in business is simple: expend a relatively small amount of capital to generate a greater value. In other words, leaders achieve leverage when results exceed amounts invested. This usually indicates productivity but does not always guarantee efficiency.

In today’s financial services and residential lending market, executives in charge of operations need leverage more than at any time over the past decade. The real estate lending boom of the past few years caused production operations to swell in order to deliver products and services using legacy systems and processes which, at best, were developed to address high demand and, at worst, simply evolved under pressure on a foundation of archaic technical platforms and customary workflow.

With plummeting volumes and consolidation going on throughout the lending industry, many managers whose responsibilities grew and careers have ascended during the boom now find themselves heading static organizations with processes having little or no scalability. Look around, it's not difficult to find too many growth strategies lacking sophisticated support beyond recruiting more salespeople (and that does not guarantee more loans).

Companies continue to pour millions of dollars into technology upgrades seeking efficiency gains. Staffing levels are shrinking in reaction to reduced volume but not necessarily in ways that protect or build competitive advantage.

Responsible executives and managers are questioning how greater leverage can be achieved to improve results. In particular, they seek answers to what can be done to increase productivity, reduce costs, and enable their companies to compete successfully today. In many cases, their companies’ survival depends on how they answer these questions as the fountainhead of borrower-demand, for the time being, has slowed to a trickle.

To rely only on experience & legacy systems can leave your business in a reactive and vulnerable position. A comprehensive & balanced approach ensures better alignment of investments in people, processes and technology with the strategic goals of the company.

A published strategic plan, demonstrating alignment, will keep leaders, managers and employees focused on business priorities and avoid the day-to-day firefighting that prevents so many organizations from realizing their potential.

Without a plan and a balanced approach, leverage is lost every day by even some of the best resources inside a company. To rely on experience and legacy systems only leaves the organization in a reactive and vulnerable position.

A strategic plan and the way in which it demonstrates how priorities must be achieved, undaunted by internal resistance or day-to-day urgencies, (some say distractions), is critical to leading any endeavor. With that in place, there are 3 clear points of leverage immediately available to any executive in this situation. The time and investments needed to get a strong plan in place and exercise leverage are modest and can achieve results faster than you might think.

1 Scalable Business Process Design & Understanding
This understanding goes beyond raw numbers of the volume of loans produced to ensure the efficient use of resources from lead through application and from production through execution and delivery. Scalability in business processes is essential to enabling a business to handle spikes in demand as well as manage market downturns without forcing the organization to undergo reactive and disruptive growth and contraction cycles which diminish competitive advantage.

2 In-House Knowledge and Skills (Talent)
Talent should not be confused with all human resources; it’s different (see earlier posting on Knowledge). Unless you are a mom & pop organization and always intend to be one, knowledge that is held only by experts and senior players does little to position your company to survive consolidation and grow in the marketplace.

3 New & Existing Solutions in IT
IT is often the first place people go to seek urgent solutions. All too often leverage here is squandered as managers, scrambling to find the latest urgent solutions, redirect IT resources away from the last set of priorities, with ROI projections from the earlier projects being blown away in the latest storm.

Now is the time to take a hard look at earlier investments in technology, prove or disprove their concepts (business cases) and achieve the promise of ROI where it still makes sense. This will enable you to pursue urgent solutions along the way without abandoning your longer-range IT objectives.

As always, your comments, questions and feedback are encouraged - simply click the COMMENTS link appearing below this posting.

Knowledge Assets In Times Of Change

Tapping into and building knowledge can provide the competitive edge -
Failing to safeguard it can increase in operational cost and risk.

In a service business, how you cultivate, foster and leverage the knowledge, skills and expertise of employees can mean the difference between business success and failure. To gain competitive advantage in a fiercely competitive marketplace requires your company to build & retain knowledge to master your internal business processes. This applies as much to company-specific knowledge and institutional best practices as it does to expertise and ideas drawn from the industry and other professional disciplines.

Mastering corporate knowledge is also more challenging now as many companies plan (or scramble) to reduce or eliminate costs by resizing the organization.
The importance of mining your company’s knowledge is far greater now, in times of falling demand and tightening margins, than it was during the preceding few years when all attention was given to keeping up with demand.

Integrate Knowledge Retention into Your Business Planning
Changes to strategies, operations, business processes, the information supply chain, or the organizational structure will impact your company’s ability to compete. To avoid unintended consequences that could prove disastrous, your business plans must be crafted to build and retain knowledge in the company.

Whether you use a sophisticated change management discipline or simply rely on managers to make change happen in the course of their regular responsibilities, the impact of change on your business can be inordinately high unless you consider the value of knowledge as part of the plan.

Companies pursuing cost-cutting strategies like staff reductions, automation and outsourcing should identify core competencies and protect knowledge within the organization. Otherwise, they risk their long-term ability to anticipate and respond to marketplace threats and opportunities.

Build and Guard Knowledge Assets
Knowledge resides within every corner of your company. Employees develop knowledge through their work experience and build upon the expertise and insights they gain from doing their jobs. It is acquired by employees each day, yet most of it is not documented or accessible in any scalable fashion.

During times of change, successful managers and executives recognize that uncertainty causes resistance to grow and, as this happens, the value of knowledge held by employees becomes more difficult to preserve and share. Depending on how employees perceive the changes and the impact on their position and security, their knowledge may become almost impossible to leverage as part of the larger change management process.

When specific knowledge is identified as vital-to-current-business-operations, it must be transformed from knowledge held by individuals to accessible information that can be shared and used across the organization to support ongoing business. It is critical to successful change management that the expertise be shared and used in a way that ensures value is maintained while expanding learning and development in the organization.

Finally, don’t be discouraged by the multitude of expensive and complicated knowledge management designs. There are many low-cost, low-tech methods to begin collecting and securing knowledge today.

How are you identifying, building and protecting your knowledge assets? Your comments, questions and feedback are welcomed by clicking on the COMMENTS link below.

Value Based Consulting Services

How We Work with Clients to Create Value.

TEAMWORK
TPG The Performance Group offers you the flexibility to engage consulting services in the way that works best at your company. While some clients prefer a team of consultants who can operate without internal project support, other customers look to us to work closely with their project staff to ensure that knowledge is transferred and internal capacity grows as a result of our work. Large-scale changes and projects call for the involvement of your employees. We know this and will work with you before work begins to determine which approach makes sense for your organization. Whether it’s a grass-roots initiative that involves staff throughout the company, a best-in-house project team, or a senior management task force, we can help you identify the level of involvement and internal resources needed to accomplish the goal. Our approach is tailored to fit your company’s specific needs.

TPG GUARANTEE
Imagine a consulting firm that guarantees its service. The Performance Group stands behind everything we do. When you choose The Performance Group to help you get a job done, we do it. It’s that simple. And, because we work with you to determine the value of the job, we don’t look for ways to prolong the work or pile on extras that provide no real value to your business. ROI on your investment in consulting services is assured.

THE TPG DIFFERENCE IS VALUE
Unlike many consultancies operating in the field, TPG offers you the real opportunity to work with us to define the value of our services. In this way, we never lose sight of the reason you selected us as your trusted performance consultants and you are assured that your investment in our services stays in line with the value delivered.

Fixed costs offer you greater value with less risk.